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Defeated

orenhazi.com

161–170 of 445 posts

Re: Defeated

#161
post #24

Airline security measures is not only a threat to civil liberties, it's also a threat to the airline industry. On short distances ( But there are powerful interests that like to keep it this way. Airport owners make money turning airports into shopping malls because travellers are forced to wait there. Governments use airport security as job creation schemes. It's a leech sucking on resources all of us need.

> Airline security measures is not only a threat to civil liberties, it's also a threat to the airline industry. On short distances ( Good. Planes are somewhat decent means of transportation on long, rarely travelled distances, but for everything else, both cars and trains are the more ecological, economical and scalable way to get from A to B. Unfortunately, both cars and planes (and, to a lesser extent, trains) are…

Air travel is bad for the environment, but only because the distances are long compared to driving. The fact that planes take lots of energy to propel through the air is defrayed by the fact that you can pack a lot of people on a plane - both typically consume on the order of .5 kWh of energy per kilometer of travel. Rail and buses are, of course, an order of magnitude lower.[1]

You can talk about all the other energy costs surrounding air travel, but you can do the same thing with cars. Really, they're small potatoes compared to the costs of the fuel for vehicles and in the case of cars the cost of building all those roads.

And then there's the fact that flying a distance is much safer than driving it even on distances as short as a couple hundred kilometers. The diversion of people from flying to driving after 9/11 causes on the order of a hundred excess road deaths each year.

[1] http://www.withouthotair.com/c20/page_121.shtml

Re: Defeated

#162
post #100

Sorry, but I'm going to be the token "sheeple" here. Did you make such a fuss when you had to go through metal detectors? Did you make such a fuss when you were wanded? Did you make a fuss when you were carded (at the bar, or at the airport?) I think we should protest when the TSA is unprofessional and does not monitor their people and they do unprofessional things, (like circulate photos or make fun of people) but p…

The people operating the naked scanners are literally ex-pizza-delivery-dudes: http://www.loweringthebar.net/2010/07/tsa-advertising-job-op... Highly trained professionals, these are not. They're just people working their nine-to-five to get a paycheck. We pass dumb customer support tickets around the office all the time; why shouldn't they pass around hot chick photos, etc?

Cops are 9-to-5ers as well. Should we not trust them to do their job and keep us safe? They didn't walk on the job with no training - maybe the ex-pizza dudes got trained as well. Also, comparing security photos and helpdesk tickets is a bad comparison, regardless of the similarities.

Re: Defeated

#163
post #41

There is an extremely simple solution: leave. I've not lived in the US for almost two years now. I've only had to travel back twice in that time. Meanwhile, in the same time I've visited France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany multiple times. None of those travel experiences were nearly as unpleasant or stressful as my two trips to the US. Furthermore, the technology communities that are growing up in these pla…

Yeah, I left too. I've lived in a couple parts of Europe and then Japan since leaving. All of them feel more "free" than post-Bush (I guess I really mean post-Bin Laden) USA; people enjoy more civil rights, and (more pragmatically) more freedom from idiotic hassle in the name of... whatever kind of fuckery it is that keeps the prison lobby, the TSA, and the general industrial-fearmongering complex in business and fre…

The rampant xenophobia in Japan is what keeps me from moving there. You mean even if I becomes a naturalized citizen (an ordeal in itself) that most places will still treat me like a foreigner? No thanks.

The US is occupied by an enemy force that they supported and elected. Every time another basic human right is violated by the legislative and executive branch those cheer. Does it matter that drunk driving kills more people per year in the US than acts of terror? Does it matter that more people die from prescription drug dispensation mistakes? Not to the mind of the scared American.

Re: Defeated

#164

There is an extremely simple solution: leave. I've not lived in the US for almost two years now. I've only had to travel back twice in that time. Meanwhile, in the same time I've visited France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany multiple times. None of those travel experiences were nearly as unpleasant or stressful as my two trips to the US. Furthermore, the technology communities that are growing up in these pla…

I left. I live in Australia now.

It wasn't a simple solution or an easy decision. They just rammed through millimeter-wave machines here, too. And you can't opt out.

http://travelsecure.infrastructure.gov.au/bodyscanners/faq.a...

Re: Defeated

#165

There is an extremely simple solution: leave. I've not lived in the US for almost two years now. I've only had to travel back twice in that time. Meanwhile, in the same time I've visited France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany multiple times. None of those travel experiences were nearly as unpleasant or stressful as my two trips to the US. Furthermore, the technology communities that are growing up in these pla…

I know hacker news doesn't generally appreciate comments like this, but moving to Europe is the last thing you want to do if your objection is based on the political theory of individual liberty. Practically speaking the US is losing respect for personal freedom, but at least there's a legal framework and founding ideal for it here.

If your rely on rules to maintain order, bad actors will figure out how to "game the system". If you rely on people to maintain order, bad actors will bribe and corrupt those in charge.

The US has traditionally relied more on rules, and you are correct in citing that the US Constitution and Bill of Rights still represent the most comprehensive set of rules in the world guarding personal freedom. In turn, you also have "enemy combatants", "extraordinary rendition", "enhanced interrogation techniques", "national security letters", and "corporate personhood" that all represent ways in which people have gamed the system. Rules, alone, are not enough. You also need people.

(Consequently, where I live now there has always been much greater reliance on people over rules, and as such corruption is a major problem... Striking the right balance can be difficult.)

Re: Defeated

#166
post #143
post #24

Airline security measures is not only a threat to civil liberties, it's also a threat to the airline industry. On short distances ( But there are powerful interests that like to keep it this way. Airport owners make money turning airports into shopping malls because travellers are forced to wait there. Governments use airport security as job creation schemes. It's a leech sucking on resources all of us need.

Self-driving cars will kill air travel for distances shorter than an overnight car trip. Or we will suddenly find that airlines' customers are not a security risk and deserve good service throughout their trip.

Time to short manufacturers of midrange jets, like Embraer.

Re: Defeated

#167
Shit will really hit the fan when we have a President or some authority figure who will use all this massive surveillance power to run McCarthyistic campaigns against people. Heck, already NSA employees are spying on their former lovers. The author is correct, this is how freedom and rights are lost, slowly and bit by bit.

Re: Defeated

#168
post #151

I just don't get the deal with the millimeter wave scanners. Did everyone raise a fuss like this when airports had you walk through metal detectors? How is a millimeter wave scanner different than a high-tech metal detector? Aren't we always talking about how the law needs to "catch up to technology?" Don't get me wrong, I think the TSA is a huge waste of money and I hate being ordered around by flunkies who can't ge…

They have to walk through metal detectors to buy books? I thought it was only for dangerous places like schools and offices. I can't think of anywhere in Europe we have those except for American embassies, a few courthouses, some government buildings and airports. Anyone knows when this started in the US and when it got so widespread?

They're not metal detectors -- they're RFID scanners that sound an alarm if someone tries to steal something. A lot of products have an RFID chip attached that must be deactivated at the checkout. It's for reducing shoplifting, not for public safety.

Re: Defeated

#169

I just don't get the deal with the millimeter wave scanners. Did everyone raise a fuss like this when airports had you walk through metal detectors? How is a millimeter wave scanner different than a high-tech metal detector? Aren't we always talking about how the law needs to "catch up to technology?" Don't get me wrong, I think the TSA is a huge waste of money and I hate being ordered around by flunkies who can't ge…

That's not a metal detector, it's a system designed to scan for tagged items. My problem with the scanners is that they are invasive AND ineffective. They aren't protecting me, but they do train me to complacently subject myself as an innocent, not-charged-with-a-crime citizen to pre-emptive searches. That's just not alright by me.

I don't like them either, but why are they invasive?

Re: Defeated

#170
post #106
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It introduces a different mentality: you have to do something other than shop.

As an international traveler that for some reason ends up arriving in Germany Sundays, let me assure you, it sucks to high heaven that I can't get something to eat or drink easily.

Where are you having these problems?

International travellers tend to arrive by plane or train (as Derbasti says), you can buy something from there. Or from a restaurant.

The only problem you would have is with supermarkets away from the train station or airport.

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